A social work study on detecting organizational and job related factors creating stress: A case study of hydro power employees

The study investigates different factors influencing people to have more stress in a hydropower unit located in city of Esfahan, Iran. Since there were only 81 people working for customer service section of this company and the proposed study tries to focus only on this part of the firm we have decided to distribute questionnaires among all of them. The questionnaire consists of two parts, in the first part, we gather all private information such as age, gender, education, job experience, etc. through seven important questions. In the second part of the survey, there are 66 questions, which include all the important factors influencing employees' stress. Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.946, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. The results of our ANOVA tests shows that among different factors, difficulty of working condition as well as work pressure are two most important factors increasing stress among employees. The other findings indicate that there is not a significant difference on work stress among different groups of employees in terms of their job title, educational level, employment type and gender (P>0.05). The other finding indicates that there is a meaningful difference between different groups of people with various ages, marital status and job experience (P>0.05)

A social work study on measuring the impact of age and job title on stress: A case study of hydro-power employees

The study performs an empirical study based on the implementation of ANOVA and LSD tests to measure the impact of stress among people with different job titles and ages in a hydropower unit located in city of Esfahan, Iran. The study performed the survey among all 81 people who were working for customer service section of this company and consisted of two parts, in the first part; we gather all private information such as age, gender, education, job experience, etc. through seven important questions. In the second part of the survey, there were 66 questions, which included all the relevant factors impacting employees' stress. Cronbach alpha was calculated as 0.946, which is well above the minimum acceptable level. The implementation of ANOVA and LSD tests have revealed that there are no meaning differences among people with different job titles but people in different age groups maintained various level of stress

A social work study on relationship between leadership style and organization change: A case study of Semnan high schools' teachers

The primary objective of this survey is to study the relationship between leadership style among teachers who work in high schools and their orientation on organizational change. The study is performed among students who attended guided schools in province of Semnan, Iran. There are five hypotheses associated with the proposed study of this paper including managers' attitudes on change based on demographic characteristics, the relationship between leadership style and organizational change, the effects of different leadership styles and the organizational change orientation in terms of demographical characteristics. Statistical population includes all teachers who for high schools in city of Semnan, Iran and the study used a sample of 373 people who were randomly selected from three regions of the city. The proposed study used standard leadership questionnaire based on initiating structure and consideration originally developed at Ohio university in two dimensions with 30 questions. The questionnaire also used another type questionnaire consists of 32 questions with three dimensions of structure, technology and employee. The results indicate that there is no meaningful relationship between leadership style and gender, leadership style and job experience, organizational change and gender, management change and gender

High expression of CEACAM19, a new member of carcinoembryonic antigen gene family, in patients with breast cancer

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) family members play important roles in malignancies and are introduced as biomarkers in different types of cancers. Among them CEACAM19 (CEAL1) gene, a new member of the CEA family, remains to be fully elucidated. The aim of this study was investigating the mRNA expression level of CEACAM19 in tumor samples of breast cancer patients compared to breast tissue of normal individuals. We evaluated the expression level of this gene in 75 breast tumors by using real-time quantitative PCR. Also, we studied the correlation between CEACAM19 expression and clinicopathological features and hormone receptors status, including estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 of patients. Out of the enrolled patients, six of them (7.9%) showed low expression, ten (13.2%) showed normal expression and 59 (77.6%) showed high expression of CEACAM19. There was a significant correlation between high expression of CEACAM19 gene in tumor samples compared to normal tissues (P = 0.039). No significant correlation was seen between clinicopathological factors and disease-free survival with mRNA levels of CEACAM19 in tumor samples, while the difference between the expression of CEACAM19 in ER/PR-positive and ER/PR-negative breast cancer patients was statistically significant (P = 0.046). In conclusion, CEACAM19 showed high expression in tumor samples compared to normal mammary tissue. In addition, CEACAM19 may represent as a novel therapeutic target in certain subgroups of breast cancer patients such as ER/PR-negative. Critical roles of CEA proteins in tumor progression may nominate them as robust potential targets for therapeutic intervention in near future.Peer reviewe

Study of relationship between IL-1Ra gene polymorphism and GVHD in HLA – identical sibling allogenic transplants

Introduction: The interleukin-1 (IL-1) gene family includes three members (IL-1a, IL-1b and IL-1Ra) that mediate immune and inflammatory responses. Interleukin-1 (IL-1) is an inflammatory cytokine involved in various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is the naturally occurring antagonist to IL-1a and IL-1b. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the IL-1Ra gene has been associated with increased IL-1Ra production and affects the severity of aGVHD. Material and methods: Three hundred and fifty pairs (175 HSCT recipients and their donors) were analyzed by VNTR/PCR. Because of haematological disorders all patients were transplanted. All genotypes were screened blind to the clinical outcome of the transplants. GVHD was graded using Glucksberg criteria. Results: The influence of different alleles on incidence of aGVHD was investigated with univariate analysis. None of them showed an association with aGVHD, but possession of allele 2 in donors was associated with less severe aGVHD, although the frequency of allele 2 in our study population was low. However, aGVHD correlated with recipient age, donor age and recipient disease, particularly thalassaemia. Conclusions: No significant correlation was observed between the IL-1Ra polymorphism and incidence of aGVHD. In addition there was a powerful association between diagnosis, particularly thalassaemia, and GVHD (26 out of 30 thalassaemia patients). These findings may help to predict the risk/severity of GVHD, which may contribute to selecting strategies for treatment/prevention in thalassaemia patients

A Metabolic Study on Colon Cancer Using 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Background. Colorectal carcinoma is the third cause of cancer deaths in the world. For diagnosis, invasive methods like colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy are used, and noninvasive screening tests are not very accurate. We decided to study the potential of 1HNMR spectroscopy with metabolomics and chemometrics as a preliminary noninvasive test. We obtained a distinguishing pattern of metabolites and metabolic pathways between colon cancer patient and normal. Methods. Sera were obtained from confirmed colon cancer patients and the same number of healthy controls. Samples were sent for 1HNMR spectroscopy and analysis was carried out Chenomex and MATLAB software. Metabolites were identified using Human Metabolic Data Base (HDMB) and the main metabolic cycles were identified using Metaboanalyst software. Results. 15 metabolites were identified such as pyridoxine, orotidine, and taurocholic acid. Main metabolic cycles involved were the bile acid biosynthesis, vitamin B6 metabolism, methane metabolism, and glutathione metabolism. Discussion. The main detected metabolic cycles were also reported earlier in different cancers. Our observations corroborated earlier studies that suggest the importance of lowering serum LCA/DCA and increasing vitamin B6 intake to help prevent colon cancer. This work can be looked upon as a preliminary step in using 1HNMR analysis as a screening test before invasive procedures

Selection on plant height through the interplay of landscape and large herbivores

Many herbaceous and graminoid plants from open communities are characterized by their relatively small size and by seeds that appear to lack any clear traits for dispersal. Such syndrome is likely the result of several selective pressures and their tradeoffs acting together. Drawing on the putative relationship of these plants with large mammals that graze on them, with respect to defoliation and the dispersal of seeds (endozoochory), we included plant stature as a trait in a simulation model to elaborate on these animals’ relative contribution in plant evolution. Different configurations of the landscape were used as a template, as these are known to affect the response of plants through additional costs levied in dispersal. As such, two herbivore parameters (the intensity of grazing and the efficacy of endozoochorous dispersal) were tested along with two parameters of the landscape (the proportion and connectivity of suitable habitat). Plants were allowed to evolve freely under these conditions, assuming that taller plants 1) produce more seeds and 2) have a more distant seed rain in wind dispersal, but 3) are also more likely to suffer failed reproduction because of herbivory. Our model confirmed the effects of landscape on the resulting dispersal capacity of plants, although these effects were readily overruled by the actions of grazers. We found the evolution of plant size to primarily result from the effects of defoliation, but also (though to a lesser degree) from endozoochory. This provides support for the adaptive value of unassisted dispersal syndromes in plants. Endozoochory also succeeded in maintaining increased population densities. However, these effects only hold when grazers sustain a considerable transfer of seeds towards suitable plant habitat